Burundi Tag

UGANDA, Jean de Dieu Ntisumbwa/Maria Fischer • What do we expect of a French-speaking Burundian Schoenstatt member obliged to flee to Uganda, an English-speaking country, to do there? Found Schoenstatt, what else? Jean de Dieu Ntisumbwa, a refugee from Burundi since 2015, works in the Nakivale parish, archdiocese of Mbarara, where Schoenstatt began on October 30, 2016. Meanwhile, there are seventy active members. The only problem: no MTA pictures, no Unity Crosses, no Schoenstatt books in English.— The Nakivale parish gathers a multi-national group of people that have taken refugeRead More

TANZANIA, Philippe Kitabu • Schoenstatt is present in Tanzania in three dioceses: Kayanga, Rulenge Ngara, and Bukoba… Furthermore it is continuing to grow, in spite of the belief that over time, the Shrine there would be left alone. From Burundi, Phlippe Kitabu, who has worked for Schoenstatt in Tanzania since 2005, was very happy to tell schoenstatt.org a little about the apostolate carried out in Tanzania. — At the beginning of the Seventies, members from the Institute of Our Lady of Schoenstatt from Germany built a shrine in the formerRead More

BURUNDI, Jean de Dieu • On Wednesday, 20 December, hundreds of children from “St. Michael the Archangel” School in Bujumbura went on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Monte Sion Gikingu. Teachers, parents and some guests accompanied them. It was the first time that they had come to the Shrine for Christmas. Original: German. 29 December 2017. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA. Edited: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USARead More

BURUNDI, Fr. Claudio Jeria • It’s the same the world over and Burundi, one of the poorest countries in Africa, is no different. Those who are without education are vulnerable and anyone can deceive them, play them for fools, take advantage of them and act unjustly towards them. Without education, they do not have the ability to know their rights and their potential. Lack of knowledge is slavery. Knowledge is freedom. Those who possess knowledge can speak out, fluently state their position, and have the agility to navigate their wayRead More

BURUNDI, Diomede Mujojoma • The Lenten Action Commission from the Mount Sion Gikungu Shrine in Burundi visited Muyinga prison on 23 July 2017. They took along donations of clothes, 350kg of rice, 65l of palm oil, 140kg of maize meal, 35kg of sugar, 50kg of salt, 72 tubes of toothpaste, bread, ham and Fanta to give to the prisoners. The delegation headed by Félix Naishakiye, the vice president of Lenten Action Commission, left Bujumbura in two vehicles at 7.30 in the morning. They were late in arriving because they didRead More

BURUNDI/TANZANIA, Hermes Ntabiriho, Miguel Ángel Rubio and Maria Fischer • On Saturday, 17 June, Fr. Romuald Kajara, a diocesan priest and coordinator of the Schoenstatt Movement in Tanzania, took a large group of seventy-three pilgrims from the Diocese of Ngara-Rulenge and Kayanga in Tanzania to the Mont Sion Gikungu Schoenstatt Shrine in Bujumbura, Burundi. “We are very happy that we went on pilgrimage to Mont Sion Gikungu Shrine to pray and to meet with our brothers/sisters from Burundi. On Saturday, we had a Mass with a procession, and we shared ideas with our brothers/sisters from Burundi,” Fr. Romuald related. The Schoenstatt ShrineRead More

BURUNDI, Maria Fischer with material from Diomède Mujojoma Mont Sion Gikungu• On Divine Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, at 10:58 a.m., Longin Ntiranyibagira and Jean Marie Bisimwa Isaac moved from being deacons to becoming Fr. Longin Ntiranyibagira and Fr. Jean Marie Bisimwa Isaac, Jesus Christ’s priests, Schoenstatt Fathers, and bearers of the Schoenstatt mission for the countries in the heart of Africa. Families, pilgrims and most of all other priests arrived very early in the morning. Everyone came to visit the Mont Sion Gikungu shrine, to pray, andRead More

ROME/BURUNDI, Maria Fischer • Although several months have passed since the jar from Burundi was placed in the Shrine of all of us in Belmonte, along with the “jar of virtual solidarity” on schoenstatt.org, virtual contributions to fill the jar with the “wine” of peace and reconciliation for this country still continue to arrive. Well! The violence continues, also insecurity and a difficult destiny await the thousands of Burundians in neighboring countries. Those who attended the National Conference of the Italian Schoenstatt Movement in Belmonte on 6 September saw the jarRead More

Rome – Belmonte, by María Fischer • Tuesday, 9 June 2015, A thundershower at the end of a hot summer’s day in Rome. It couldn’t be more simple. In the Matri Ecclesiae Shrine in Rome a handful of people have gathered to celebrate Holy Mass – an Argentinian, Brazilians, Germans, Italians and a young walker from the Ukraine who is taking refuge from the rain. As usual there are two jars in the shrine – the big one from the Tuparenda shrine in Paraguay filled with countless slips of paperRead More

About schoenstatt.org

Our mission is to serve the life of the International Schoenstatt family and the Church by promoting bonds of solidarity - covenant culture - and offering this service as a testimony - culture of encounter.

In all our actions, we daily hear the echoes of the words given to us by Pope Francis during the audience on 25 October 2014, "a culture of encounter is a covenant culture that creates solidarity."

About Schoenstatt

Schoenstatt is an ecclesial Movement, where everyone, each according to his individual vocation and united in covenant, serves the Church and its mission and the world God has entrusted to us.

The core of Schoenstatt's foundation is the covenant of love with Mary, the Mother of God.

This covenant of love generates culture and covenant culture is the unique expression of our way of life and work, our attachment to God, to people, to nature and culture, to the Church and the world, which always departs from the covenant of love.

Schoenstatt's commitment to this covenant culture inspires it to go out from the shrines to the existential peripheries to "sanctuarize" the world, as Pope Francis says.